DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57409#0189
AMBRUOGIO LORENZETTI.
173
AMBRUOGIO LORENZETTI* PAINTER, OF SIENA.
[BORN . . . .—DIED ABOUT 1348.]
If the debt which the richly-endowed artist owes to Nature
be a large one—as it doubtless is—still greater is the amount
of gratitude due from us to him, seeing that by his cares our
cities are enriched with noble erections for use and beauty,
as well as with the graceful embellishment of painting, and
other ornaments. It is true that artists most commonly
acquire fame and riches for themselves by their labours, as
did Ambruogio Lorenzetti, a painter of Siena. This master
displayed considerable force of invention, with great skill in
grouping his figures, of which we find proof in the church
of the Friars-Minors in Siena, where there is a historical
painting in the cloister, very gracefully executed by his
hand. The subject of this work is a youth who becomes a
monk, and proceeds with others to the court of the Soldan,
where they are scourged, condemned to the gallows, hanged
on a tree, and finally decapitated, while a horrible tempest is
prevailing. In this picture, Lorenzetti has represented the
turmoil of the elements, with the fury of the rain and wind,
(against which his figures are struggling), -with infinite ability.
And from him it is that later masters first acquired the
mode of depicting circumstances of this kind, for his por-
traiture of which, as a thing not previously attempted, he
deserves high commendation.f Ambruogio was a practised
fresco painter, as 'well as an excellent colourist in distemper;
his works in the latter are executed with extreme facility,
and evince great talent. This may still be seen in the pic-
in 1340, since we find him notified, in the old Book of the Company of
Painters, under the date 1351; whence it becomes doubtfid whether
Vasari has correctly given the year of his birth (1262). Baldinucci
declares Biifralmacco to have lived later than 1358.
* The signature on his works is Ambrosius Laurentii; but, in the
records of the time, he is called “ di lorenzo”, and di Lorenzetto, as
well as Lorenzetti, or del Lorenzetto; a name which he bore in common
with bis brother, Pietro Laurati, of whose relationship to Ambrogio
Vasari was not aware. For the completion of this very meagre bio-
graphy, see Rumohr, Lanzi, and Della Valle, Letters Sanesi, ii, 205-210.
f The loss of this picture is all the more to be lamented, as we know
what its value and beauty must have been, from the minute description
given of it by Ghiberti.
173
AMBRUOGIO LORENZETTI* PAINTER, OF SIENA.
[BORN . . . .—DIED ABOUT 1348.]
If the debt which the richly-endowed artist owes to Nature
be a large one—as it doubtless is—still greater is the amount
of gratitude due from us to him, seeing that by his cares our
cities are enriched with noble erections for use and beauty,
as well as with the graceful embellishment of painting, and
other ornaments. It is true that artists most commonly
acquire fame and riches for themselves by their labours, as
did Ambruogio Lorenzetti, a painter of Siena. This master
displayed considerable force of invention, with great skill in
grouping his figures, of which we find proof in the church
of the Friars-Minors in Siena, where there is a historical
painting in the cloister, very gracefully executed by his
hand. The subject of this work is a youth who becomes a
monk, and proceeds with others to the court of the Soldan,
where they are scourged, condemned to the gallows, hanged
on a tree, and finally decapitated, while a horrible tempest is
prevailing. In this picture, Lorenzetti has represented the
turmoil of the elements, with the fury of the rain and wind,
(against which his figures are struggling), -with infinite ability.
And from him it is that later masters first acquired the
mode of depicting circumstances of this kind, for his por-
traiture of which, as a thing not previously attempted, he
deserves high commendation.f Ambruogio was a practised
fresco painter, as 'well as an excellent colourist in distemper;
his works in the latter are executed with extreme facility,
and evince great talent. This may still be seen in the pic-
in 1340, since we find him notified, in the old Book of the Company of
Painters, under the date 1351; whence it becomes doubtfid whether
Vasari has correctly given the year of his birth (1262). Baldinucci
declares Biifralmacco to have lived later than 1358.
* The signature on his works is Ambrosius Laurentii; but, in the
records of the time, he is called “ di lorenzo”, and di Lorenzetto, as
well as Lorenzetti, or del Lorenzetto; a name which he bore in common
with bis brother, Pietro Laurati, of whose relationship to Ambrogio
Vasari was not aware. For the completion of this very meagre bio-
graphy, see Rumohr, Lanzi, and Della Valle, Letters Sanesi, ii, 205-210.
f The loss of this picture is all the more to be lamented, as we know
what its value and beauty must have been, from the minute description
given of it by Ghiberti.